World Perspectives

Tariffs and Treasury Bonds

Treasury securities are one of the safest investments in times of economic chaos. Proof of that in the havoc over the present trade disputes may be the current flattening of the yield curve in bonds. With last year’s tax cut bill and the effective moratorium on new regulations, the economy has been solid (to put it mildly). Consider the following: Corporate profits reported at the end of June (with the GDP growth rate) were a record $1.92 trillion on an annualized basis, up more than 16 percent versus last year. Truck tonnage, which reflects the amount of freight of manufactured goods and goods destined for retail sale, was up 9.5 percent from May 2017 to April 2018. Intermodal rail shipments through the first five months of the...

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Market Commentary: Absent Chinese Demand, Supply Dominates the Mood

Markets were over-weight on the Xi – Trump phone call this morning. The phone call went well enough but after it became clear there was no deal on ag or soybeans, the latter turned south. Beans and meal had traded higher overnight and at the open, but like all three wheats, closed on loss...

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Cattle of Feed - Sep 2025

U.S. Cattle on Feed in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.1 million head on September 1, 2025. The inventory was 1 percent below September 1, 2024.  Placements in feedlots during August totaled 1.78 million head, 10 percent below 2024.  Marketings of fed cattle du...

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Cattle on Feed Report Shows Record Low Marketings

USDA’s monthly Cattle on Feed report was released today at 3 p.m. Total cattle on feed amounted to 11.1 million head, 99 percent of last year, as expected.    Placements and marketings came in slightly more bullish than the pre-report estimates, but still close, within one perc...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Absent Chinese Demand, Supply Dominates the Mood

Markets were over-weight on the Xi – Trump phone call this morning. The phone call went well enough but after it became clear there was no deal on ag or soybeans, the latter turned south. Beans and meal had traded higher overnight and at the open, but like all three wheats, closed on loss...

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Cattle of Feed - Sep 2025

U.S. Cattle on Feed in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.1 million head on September 1, 2025. The inventory was 1 percent below September 1, 2024.  Placements in feedlots during August totaled 1.78 million head, 10 percent below 2024.  Marketings of fed cattle du...

livestock

Cattle on Feed Report Shows Record Low Marketings

USDA’s monthly Cattle on Feed report was released today at 3 p.m. Total cattle on feed amounted to 11.1 million head, 99 percent of last year, as expected.    Placements and marketings came in slightly more bullish than the pre-report estimates, but still close, within one perc...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.24/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.225/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.255/bushel, down $0.12 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $284/short ton, down $0.7 fro...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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